August 30th
by Nehszriah
Summary: Brigid needs to tell someone about her powers and the cryptic message from the mail, before it is too late. Rated T only because it contains some cursing. Part two in my Heroes OC Project


This is a continuation of my one-shot "Still-life", except not in the first person. I plan on making this a series, mostly composed of one-shot stories. Please refrain from putting this on a update alert. You're wasting your time. I do not own _Heroes_. By the way, the title is the date the story takes place on.

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August 30th

Greg watched on as Brigid shakily opened the lock to her apartment door. She had called him, sounding in such distress, that he seemed almost obliged to come with her, though he had no idea whatever it was had her shaking. Once she got the door open, the young woman dragged her friend into the apartment and quickly shut the door behind them.

"What is going on here?" he asked. "Why can't you freak out in front of Jon instead?" Greg immediately envied their conveniently absent friend, who most likely was still trying to eke out his living at the nearby Lowes, finishing off the afternoon shift.

"He promised me he'd come too, but I have to show you now," Brigid said, closing the window shades.

"I don't know why this has to be kept in such a paranoid sense of secrecy," Greg said, running his fingers through his black hair and sighing at the sight of Brigid's panic. He knew it was nothing to let out a usual snide comment about though, for the accent that his friend hated so much was in full force, undoubtedly defining her Scot origin.

"This is monumental," she said, placing her hands on Greg's shoulders and pushing him down so that he was sitting on her couch. "Someone knows what I can do! I haven't told a soul but someone out there knows!"

"Hey, if this is about Jon and me walking in on you the other day singing in perfect French, we promised we'd keep that a secret…" Greg said as Brigid ran off towards her room. She quickly returned, holding something behind her back.

"This has nothing to do with me singing _'Moulin Rouge'_," she said, taking a deep breath. Please promise you will not laugh at me."

"I promise on my two-week term as a Cub Scout," Greg swore.

"Promise you won't hate me?"

"Brigid, we've been friends since ninth grade," Greg said with a groan. "If our friendship can survive through puberty and high school drama, it can get through _anything_. What is behind your back?"

The auburn-haired woman gulped and placed the plush teddy bear she held behind her back onto the table between her and Greg.

"Holy shit…" Greg gasped.

"So you remember too," Brigid said warily.

"That bear! You kept it!?" Greg asked, pointing at the toy. "This thing was at the museum! You took that kid's teddy bear!?"

"No! I would never take something like this from a wee kid!" Brigid exclaimed, going and sitting down next to Greg. "It climbed into my bag all on its own!"

"So then, this is the big secret? The fact that you have the bear?" Greg asked. "The authorities checked everything out, remember? There was no reason for everything to start moving like that. Besides, two years is a long time. I do believe most have forgotten about it already."

"No, watch," Brigid said, pointing at the bear. "Luke, move." Greg watched as the bear jumped up and began stretching as if it were preparing for a jog.

"Crap! What the…!?" the shocked man replied, jumping back into the couch. "How is it doing that!?"

"I can make Luke move," Brigid said, gaining a slight bit more control over her voice. "I was the one who gave the museum life that day. Greg, I have never told anyone other than you and I plan on telling Jon when he comes and Ruby next time we all visit her at her dorm at Northern. You don't know how hard this has been to keep a secret!"

"I'm out of here," Greg said, staring at the toy bear and standing up. He tried to make his way to the door, but Brigid blocked his path.

"Please! Don't go!" she pleaded.

"You're obviously trying to pull some sort of prank on me!" Greg scoffed. "Just smoke and mirrors and wires. I know something's up."

"Nothing's up! I am telling you the truth!"

"Then how do you explain that!?" He pointed the plush toy that had now walked over to the pair and began punching his leg softly.

"I can just do it. I don't know how… **_listen_**, someone has been spying on me! They know I can do this without me telling them first! This is…"

"Just a joke, I know." Greg sighed and moved past Brigid towards the door. "You never get this emotional. I know this is a lie." He was right about to grab the doorknob, but a stool came and wedged itself between the nineteen-year-old and escape. Greg was shoved back over towards Brigid and stood there in shock, staring at the moving stool.

"This is real Greg," Brigid said quietly. "I haven't done it on anything bigger than the barstool since that day I lost control in the museum. I can make things have a life of their own. It's like Toy Story or something like that."

"What, are you saying you purposely freaked out everyone in the Henry Ford because you lost control of some little joy-run?"

"Ah, no," Brigid said. "That was the first day I realized I could do stuff like this. I don't know how it happened or even why, but I was the one who caused all of that. I didn't mean to, but I did it all the same."

"…and you also said that someone besides me knows that you can do this? What about your parents and brother? Did you tell them?"

"No," Brigid replied sheepishly, picking up Luke the Bear and letting him try to squirm out of her grip. "My mom and step-dad are kind of leery of the whole science-fiction thing as fiction and Rory's such a twit he wouldn't believe me simply because I'm his sister. I figure that you, Jon and Ruby are the ones I can trust with this."

"Then what about the other person who knows?"

"I have no idea," Brigid said. "I read my mail today after getting back from working the morning grill at the diner and there was an envelope with a card in it. No return address, no stamp. Just my address on the front and one phrase written on the card inside."

"What did it say?"

"'_Save the cheerleader; save the world.'_"

"_Cheerleader_?" Greg asked, slightly confused. "Like Ruby is?"

"I guess so," Brigid shrugged. "That's the only thing I can think of. Now the only three questions are '_what'_, '_who'_ and '_why'_."

"Four: you forgot '_where'_ and '_how'_," Greg pointed out. "We have no idea what we're supposed to be saving this person from, where she's from, why she's in danger…"

"See," Brigid said. "That's why I dragged you in on this. Hopefully we can make some sense out of all the saving business before it's too late."

"Well, first thing's first," Greg said, moving towards the door. "We have to get Jon and go off and see Ruby. She's the only cheerleader we'll even willingly talk to, so we have to make sure we protect her."

"…but what happens if she knows nothing about this?" Brigid asked, grabbing her navy blue Rangers football cap from the peg on the wall and jamming it on her head and making Luke the Bear go limp in her hand. "Then what?"

"Well, then that's just one more ally for the cause," Greg smiled. He and Brigid walked out the door of the apartment and just as Brigid was locking the knob, their friend Jon burst out of the stairwell at the end of the hall, sweat beading on his ebony skin from running.

"Greg! Brigid!" he cried out. "Thank the Lord you're here! I've been looking all over for you!"

"What's the matter Jon?" Greg asked as his friend puffed up to them.

"It's Ruby…" Jon said, gasping for air.

"Ruby? Something wrong with Ruby? She get kicked out of school for being a fluff-brain or something?"

"No," Jon said, shaking his head. "She's dead. Someone killed her dead."


End file.
